Swimmer Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympic athlete in history, is coming out of retirement.

Patrick Sandusky, the U.S. Olympic Committee public affairs officer, tweeted this morning: "It is official, Michael Phelps is back.... competing next week in Arizona."

Phelps, who will be 29 in June, has already competed in four Olympic Games, winning 22 medals, including 18 gold. There is no word yet on whether he's looking to compete in the 2016 Summer Games in Rio.

The Two-Way

1:24 pm

Mon April 14, 2014

Journalists Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald helped The Guardian win a Pulitzer Prize for public service along with The Washington Post Monday, for their stories based on NSA documents provided by Edward Snowden.

Months after lifting a veil of secrecy from the National Security Agency's surveillance operations, The Washington Post and The Guardian won a Pulitzer Prize for public service Monday. The two papers broke the story in tandem, relying on NSA documents provided by Edward Snowden.

Mobile phones and computer screens can distract us from engagement in the real world and that's been especially true of video games. But, there's an innovative game being played around the globe that's designed to use the same technologies to get its players more engaged with each other and the physical world.

The Library, a new play at New York's Public Theater, tackles an uncomfortable contemporary topic head on: It looks at the aftermath of a school shooting and peers into the shattered lives of the survivors, and the stories they tell. The play is written by Scott Z. Burns and directed by Steven Soderbergh, who've collaborated on three films; most recently, the thriller, Side Effects.

Traditionally, pawn shops have been the last stop for people desperate for cash. But now there's a small but growing group of pawn shops for the wealthy.

Actor and model Regi Huc needed $75,000 in a hurry last year. He was making his first feature film, and needed to do re-shoots before the deadline to enter this year's film festivals.

On paper his finances look good. He owns some buildings in Philadelphia and has a stake in a family business, but he needed that money within a week. He didn't have the cash in his bank account. He didn't have time to apply for a loan.

At least 12 people are dead and more than 2,000 homes have been destroyed by a large fire that wreaked havoc over the weekend in Valparaiso, Chile. Some 10,000 people have been forced to evacuate parts of the port city.

Government spokesman Álvaro Elizalde says those figures are likely to go up as the fire continues to burn.

"A deadline set by the Ukrainian government for pro-Russian gunmen to leave government buildings in eastern Ukraine and surrender weapons passed early Monday," The Associated Press writes, "with no immediate sign of any action to force the insurgents out."

The Two-Way

11:25 am

Mon April 14, 2014

The U.S. Navy's Bluefin-21 Artemis autonomous underwater vehicle as it was being hoisted on board the Australian Navy vessel Ocean Shield earlier this month. The Bluefin is being deployed to map the sea floor in the area of the southern Indian Ocean where the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is concentrated. It will look for any sign of the missing jet.